Bodies of Law: the Divine Architect, Common Law and the Ancient Constitution

Abstract

This article addresses the architecture of the four Inns of Court inLondon as repositories for the body of law (corpus iuris). Thebuildings are perceived as visual representations of the unwrittenconstitution; evidence that the sign, not the text, remains thepredominant form through which the constitution manifests its content.It is in this context that the self-governing Inns are interpreted asmicrocosms of the City of God, envisaged by Saint Augustine andprefigured in ancient Greece by the Republic of Plato. The Innssynthesise these classical and Christian precepts; thereby creatinga unique commonwealth whose Utopian ideals are based on the applicationof Justitia, or righteousness: an ethical rather than alegal concept which underpins the English constitution. The argumentproposes a correlation between architectural development at the Inns andthe challenge posed to the institutional authority of the law by the newlearning of the Renaissance. It is the semiotics of legal architecturerather than its historical provenance which is central to my analysis. Iattempt to comprehend the effect of the influences outlined above on theform and content of the common law, the legal institution and theancient constitution.